York City’s future clouded after fans’ trust votes ‘no’

YORK CITY were last night left facing an uncertain future after the Supporters’ Trust voted against handing their 25 per cent shareholding to the club.

A special general meeting held in the Minster city to discuss the ‘Golden Share’ proposal, put forward by chairman Jason McGill, was followed by a vote in which 910 members of the Trust were eligible to take part.

Of those who did cast a vote, 262 were against the motion with 123 in favour. The result means the Trust will retain their shares while McGill’s shareholding remains at 75 per cent.

Prior to the meeting McGill had pledged to continue funding the club until the scheduled move to the new stadium in 2019 if the fans voted ‘yes’ to his proposal.

He also warned, however, that a ‘no’ vote would leave his company, JM Packaging, unable to cover future losses.

The last available accounts in 2015-16 showed a loss of around £700,000 for the financial year.

This could, the York chairman told supporters in a question-and-answer session organised by the Trust ahead of the vote, lead to the club having to go part-time from next season in an attempt to “break even”.

Such a scenario is likely to make the long-term aim of promotion back to the Football League a much taller order due to most sides in the National League being full-time.

Last night’s meeting at Millthorpe School was attended by between 150 and 200 people. McGill was not present.

JM Packaging first became involved with York in March 2003 when, in conjunction with the Trust, the club were brought out of administration. At the time the Trust held an 85 per cent shareholding and JM Packaging the rest.

The current shareholding make-up has stood since 2006 when Trust members voted in favour of the change in return for JM Packaging providing £1m funding to take the club through to the new stadium’s scheduled opening date of 2011.

Since then, numerous delays have hit the Monks Cross project, but work did finally start last December.

Guiseley have added defender Ben Frempah to their squad for the closing games of the season. Frempah, 22, signed for Solihull Moors in December 2017, but has played just one game for them.